A journey of peace

Kindness, empathy, and generosity in their purest form are rare but Pakistan’s Abdul Sattar Edhi had it all.

Edhi Sb feeding kids in one of his many orphanages.

From driving a second-hand Hillman Pickup Truck to the establishment of the world’s largest voluntary ambulance service, Edhi Sb is a true embodiment of service to humanity. He believed that humanitarianism is the solution to all the problems we have created.

This week, we had this amazing activity of fundraising for the Edhi Foundation where experiencing rejection was the first step and feeling true happiness was the last.

Farhan and Hammad’s journey of peace

Human beings tend to live together. This trait urges our minds toward kindness and compassion. In fact, it’s the main reason why we feel happy by helping others.

Like every other creative task, it was difficult to initiate fundraising. We created a poster and shared it on social media among our peers. The response wasn’t appreciable except for a single text that says ‘Wah!’ (Wow!). We then started talking to people we know personally which gained us some pledges.

Poster prepared by the duo to initiate the fund raising.

During the two-week activity, our group discussed different ideas to pursue people for donations. We also shared our experiences with each other and came to the realization that Pakistan is a generous country. All it takes is a little push to come out of the comfort zone and serve humanity.

Fund transfer via Bank Al Habib and Easypaisa.

I believe perseverance has made Edhi Sb a true human. There might be days when he would have felt downhearted seeing the lack of respect for lives. The real thing is he never quitted.

Muhammad Bari’s perseverance

Given my sort of conserved nature while dealing with outsiders and my tendency to be starting to the point, from the get, go I had some idea about the troubles that I might face. Although I believe in social and societal causes and fundraising for a proven working organization, I never really have collected funds exclusively. Overall, after discussing with my learning group and finding of their experiences as well, I am both negatively shocked and positively astonished.

I would’ve preferred going out with my learning group and approach like-minded young and older people alike that are willing to contribute to a greater cause. We even had quite a solid plan to do so, however, due to the nature of the pandemic, this was not possible. I started with my family around me and my classmates who I usually study and chat with.

Transaction receipt.

Due to personal reasons and recent events, I was not able to properly indulge myself in the fundraising so my scope of experience was pretty minimal. I hesitated to approach a few people because I have noticed them sometimes arguing and saying weird things about such organizations, they mean no harm and I am sure I could’ve had a proper conversation with them to clear up any misunderstandings and misconceptions. I didn’t due to the reasons mentioned above.

The person I contacted was kind of lazy so I made sure to stay persistent and even went to their house. And they happily donated. My family is always supportive and also this time they helped me however they could. I do feel compassion towards my other fellows in my learning group who genuinely am thankful for putting themselves out there. Their experiences are my experience.

I would like to end with a quote close to my heart.

“Love what you do and do what you love.”

Ramesh against all odds

While thinking out of the box, there are a lot of possibilities and opportunities to solve any problem. When I started my work for the Edhi foundation fundraising project, the main problem I faced is how can I target people because it is difficult to convince people to contribute and donate.

There are a lot of people in our surroundings and in our networks that helped gain valuable experience. I spread my message to all my colleagues and in my network for fundraising and in response that they appreciated and said “good work and you are fighting for others, continue it and well-done”, what came to their mind they said.

Funds transferred by Circle Leader which was collected by Ramesh.

Main challenges I faced in this activity are how to manage people and target them. It helped me to take some time and sit beside the open window in my room and discuss some tips with my group. Finally, I decided to start from social media and also from my surrounding. It was totally different from my past experiences and I do have a few things to learn like thinking creatively, problem-solving and so on.

Asad is talking accepting one’s weaknesses

I have never collected funds before for any social cause but the overall experience was weird and terrifying because no one was ready to donate, so I was feeling ashamed and guilty. It seemed as if I was begging.

Even I made a plan and in the first few days where I targeted LinkedIn and WhatsApp groups but the only thing, I received was appreciation instead of donation. Then I decided to target my friends. However, to be honest, in this situation, they turned out to be very kanjoos. I say this because instead of helping out they said, “Bhai humy bhe zarorat hay jobless hay”. After that, I decided to go outside and targeted one department store and 4 shops. They recognize me as I am a frequent customer but they also said “sorry bahi jaan” that had me feeling very bad and unwilling so I didn’t go to other shops ☹. Up until Thursday evening, I was the only one in my circle who did not collect a single penny. Then I targeted my cousins because we live together, I hardly collected 300 rupees.

From this activity, I have learned one thing that impacted me a lot, which is that we will never move forward till we do not accept our weakness because most of the time we think we are the best and we can do everything but the reality is opposite.

Sarah and Fariya’s passion pays off

We are quite introverted individuals as indicated by the fact that we do not usually go out and ask for donations or community contributions. However, this time around things changed! After the death of Edhi Sahab, the figurehead and guiding light of the foundation, they took a big hit and the donation frequency became quite dormant.

Being a part of Amal academy, we were privileged enough to collect funds for Edhi Foundation. In the short period of two weeks, we contacted many people via various means, texts and calls, even stepped out and tried to convince others in person too, however many were not willing to pay! Going through this, we really resonated with what Faisal Edhi Sahab might feel all the time after the demise of his father. The discouragement and rejection from his own people and community.

Funds transferred by Sarah and Fariya.

But instead of feeling hopeless about the situation, we did do one thing, and that was that I started collecting donations from my close family and friends. To put simply and concisely, the whole experience was troublesome, but it was worth it.

CONCLUSION

All the experiences shared above reflect the single point that service to humanity is the service to God. Everyone on this planet is not the same. It is with collective efforts that we can turn it into a better place. I am determined that we will continue the mission of Edhi Saab because he once said:

“You will find me among the people.”